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Terrific Heritage Weekend

This year’s Muni Heritage Weekend was the best of the five that have taken place so far. Biggest crowds, more kids and families, more vintage vehicles operating, more variety in the routes operated. Kudos to everyone involved on Muni’s side — and there were dozens, operators, mechanics, supervisors, and more, directed by Ed Cobean. Here are a few shots of the action.

The weekend started with a ceremonial run of O’Farrell, Jones & Hyde cable car 42 over Hyde Street trackage it hadn’t felt in 62 years. The car, under the command of ace grip Val Lupiz, operated like a charm. The old Hyde terminal was just a switch, because the cars were double ended. Val took the opportunity to put the car on the Turntable, using the switch at the terminal to change tracks first, so photographers could get the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. (No, it doesn‘t fit on the turntable.)

Muni’s fabled streetcar number 1 was out and about, signed for its original route, the “A-Geary.” This weekend, it operated along Market to Castro on Saturday on the F-line and to Pier 39 on The Embarcadero on Sunday.

2016 marks the 75th anniversary of Muni’s operation of trolley buses, the “Green Machines” that continued zero-emission operation of more than 20 Muni routes when they were converted from streetcars. To celebrate, one of Muni’s first 9 trolley coaches, the 506, from 1941, carried a great photographic display documenting trolley coach history at Muni. It doesn’t operate (though we hope it will again someday), but was a great centerpiece. But second generation Muni trolley coach 776, shown behind the 506, operated the pioneering R-Howard-South Van Ness line to 26th Street and back.

From inside the 776 on Market, we see 1929 Melbourne 496 rolling by. It worked the F-line to Castro both days. (The trolley buses, including 1975 Flyer 5300, reached Howard by turning left off Market at Fourth, since the original wire on that part of Howard is gone.

A surprise participant was Muni’s oldest bus, the 042, built in 1938 by the White Motor Company. Its engine had given up the ghost, but the top-notch mechanics at Woods Motor Coach Division swapped it out for one in a White bus Market Street Railway’s Paul Wells located in the Santa Cruz Mountains and repatriated. The 042 operated like a dream looping around Union Square all weekend, as did 1970 GMC “fishbowl” 3287, shown behind it.

The most popular vehicles, as always were 1896 “dinky” 578, Muni’s oldest streetcar, and one of Muni’s two Blackpool, England, “boat trams” from 1934. They were especially welcomed during a very hot weekend as they cruised The Embarcadero between Pier 39 and our museum. Here’s the 578 with its restored route lettering (courtesy Market Street Railway) taking a break on Mission.

Your correspondent was under the weather this weekend and didn’t get very many good shots. So we’re asking your help. Please share your best photographs with us for possible use in the next issue of our newsletter Inside Track, or in our 2018 calendar now being prepared. You can share your photos here. Thanks.

I was out of the country on Heritage Weekend, but it was for a good reason–my wife and I were in Vancouver BC, and I spent part of Sunday in Cloverdale BC, riding restored BC Electric interurban car 1225, and checking progress on BCERy 1304. We were in BC to ride a “repo cruise” from Vancouver to San Pedro, with a port call in The City the following Thursday, which gave me a chance to pick up the 2017 calendar and ride some restored PCCs. I’ll plan to be in SF for next year’s Heritage–looks like this year’s was quite splendid.

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We depend on the support of our members, donors, and volunteers to help us make San Francisco’s historic transit great and to operate our San Francisco Railway Museum.

Who We Are

Market Street Railway is a non-profit organization with 1000 members, founded in 1976. Our mission: Preserving Historic Transit in San Francisco.

We advocate for historic streetcar and cable car service improvements and expansion, educate people about the importance of attractive transit in creating vibrant, livable cities, and celebrate the wonderful historic streetcars, cable cars, and buses owned and operated by Muni, a service of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).

We also operate the free San Francisco Railway Museum across from the Ferry Building at 77 Steuart Street, open Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Our group’s leaders were the driving force in making vintage streetcars a full-time part of the San Francisco scene in the 1980s and 1990s.

While we support Muni’s historic transit activities, we are not part of Muni and we receive no government money whatever. We rely instead on private donations and membership dues to help keep San Francisco’s past present in the future.

This website, our member newsletter, “Inside Track,” and our social media outlets bring you the latest news and information about San Francisco’s historic streetcars and cable cars.